Sunday, October 17, 2010

Due to circumstances that came together just right,

I'm back among the ranks of the (part-time)employed. Which is why bloggage has been light, and will remain somewhat sporadic; that post on the pocket holster took a week to get done, instead of the day or two it would have before.. Good pay, and while I wouldn't do it full-time unless it was that or starve, part-time will do. And- especially this time of year- the money will be very nice.

I will mention that I am once again the owner of a two-wheel powered conveyance, which is very nice. And a new helmet. One was by choice(knocked a hell of a hole in the checking account, one reason for the job), the other necessity; the helmet was actually overdue to be replaced, then about two weeks ago it slipped out of my hand leaving a store and merrily bounced across the pavement. Add age to impact and the hinge not working right anymore, and it's new helmet time. If you're curious, it's a HJC IS-MAX; the modular style with the pivoting chin bar is the only full-face helmet I've found that fits comfortably over my glasses, and this new model has a slide-down sunshield that means I don't have to worry about sunglasses while riding.

On to the news-type stuff, I agree with Uncle on this: did they or did they not break the law? If they did, what's this civil-penalty crap instead of criminal charges? If they didn't, then they've basically been blackmailed into giving a bunch of money to the government so they won't keep saying bad things about them. And I won't get into the "Satisfy the gummint that you're not a criminal before you're allowed to buy something for your sinus or cold problem" bullshit.

Good piece on liberal elitism, ending with this:One last note about my own brushes with liberal elitism. In the summer of 1973, as an 18-year-old anticipating college that September, I worked in a biology lab at Princeton University. My duties including mopping the floor, feeding the rats, emptying the trays of fecal matter and, once the students were finished with their animal experiments, disposing of the critters. One afternoon, I had to dispatch a bunch of monkeys and cats—using chloroform—outside the building near the garbage containers. It caused a stir among students milling about, and a number of them harassed me, yelling, “Animal killer!” It was a very weird moment: young men and women, just a few years older than myself, attacking a minimum-wage worker for doing his job, rendered further ironic by the fact that some of the protesters were, in fact, the very same people who were conducting the experiments on the animals. That’s elitism.

Oh, for bleep's sake,Dexter Meyer says he recently returned to Denver International Airport after a trip and went to retrieve his car from the airport’s parking lot. After nine days, Meyer said he found that his car would barely start. A trip to the dealership revealed the problem: rodents had eaten through the car’s wiring.

According to Meyer, the dealership explained that small critters like rabbits and mice like to much on the car’s new wiring made up of a soy-based compound.Who the hell had the bright idea of making wiring insulation of organic compounds that pests will eat? And I wonder how much he's getting paid?

A 'bacon attack' on a mosque. Discussion of 'we should be more sensitive' vs. 'I'm sick of a lot of muslims whining and threatening death whenever they're feeling unloved'.

On the subject of video, ran across this a while back; found it again today here, and it should be seen:

Kevin has a fine example of the kind of idiot who votes for Barney Frank and Friend of Angelo Dodd and Ma'am Boxer:In today's USA Today was a letter from G. Bruce Hedlund of San Andreas, California. Mr. Hedlund said this:

Think of our country as a society made up of children and a government made up of adults. It is up to the adults to weigh all the options and provide services in the best interests of the children.

There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start, but I will say that this attitude is responsible for the US receiving the government we've voted for.

I'm going to close this with something from Uncle:The other difference I find in dealing with folks with whom I mostly disagree politically is the concept of need. Why do you need a 50 caliber? Why do you need a car that gets to 60 in under 5 seconds and gets shitty gas mileage? Why do you need this or that? And my response is always the same: What’s need got to do with it?

And this throws them for a loop. Literally. They feel the need to justify their desires, wants, views and goals so that they’re palatable to other people. They expect you to do the same. I have no such predilection toward that. I do things because I want to. And when I explain to them that my supposed need has fuck all to do with anything, I can literally watch their eyes glaze over in what I presume is disbelief. I think it’s hard on them to be told that they don’t have a say. And I’m not justifying any thing to them.Amen. It's one thing to think to yourself "Ok, do I NEED this, or want this?" and decide what to do; it's a whole 'nother thing to have some jerk tell you you have to justify your decision- to HIM or the gummint- or it's not a valid or 'good' decision.

And now I shall attempt to get some stuff done here at the house. I'd rather go shooting, but...

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling